Massey academics awarded Fulbright scholarships

Massey Associate Professor Lisa Emerson and Māori development lecturer Veronica Tawhai have both been awarded prestigious scholarships to pursue their research internationally.

Dr Emerson has been awarded the 2013 Fulbright Scholar Award, which will enable her to write two new books on the life cycle of the scientific writer.

Ms Tawhai was awarded the 2013 Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Scholar Award to engage with other indigenous political educators in the United States.

The Fulbright New Zealand programme awards recipients, both students and scholars, with an all expenses paid trip to the United States to pursue research. The programme was set up the United States in 1946 to promote international goodwill through the exchange of students and scholars in the fields of education, culture and science.

Dr Emerson, from the School of English and Media Studies, will use her award money to visit the University of Vermont, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University to investigate the experiences, beliefs and attitudes of scientists as writers.

“The Fulbright will allow my study to be truly international and I'm looking to publish two books on my work, as well as a number of papers,” Dr Emerson says. “I have already completed the Australasian part of the study and am currently collecting data in the United Kingdom, hosted by Queen Mary University London.”

Ms Tawhai, from Te Pūtahi a Toi School of Māori Studies, will travel to the Centre for World Indigenous Studies in Washington for three months where she aims to establish a global indigenous political educators network and continue her doctoral studies.

“I am exploring a new notion of citizenship education, for countries like ours where there are indigenous-crown relations, one that is transformative through teaching about the ongoing effects of colonisation and our collective responsibility as citizens for the restoration of wellbeing,” she says.

“I am extremely grateful for this scholarship as it will give me the opportunity to develop a more robust evidence base to my work as a political educator.”